In my book, Migrating to MariaDB, I go into some detail on how to use a monumental project, in this case migrating from Oracle to MariaDB, as a catalyst for change to morph solution sets by encompassing the principles of DevOps. As if the process of migrating from one DBMS to another isn’t enough responsibility. A project like this does provide the vehicle and opportunity for change as many of these solutions will have to be modified in some form or another anyhow, why not make them more robust and improve them at the same time.

There are many interpretations of Agile and DevOps methodologies and some are based on misconceptions. Especially DevOps, which can be misleading by its name alone, which is a combination of “Dev” and “Ops”. This naming could lead one to think that it is strictly for Development and Operations teams or that they alone hold the answers, which is far from the case. One could also construe it to mean that in order to implement DevOps that since Dev comes first they hold the secret sauce, again a mild miscalculation. This is no slam against any team or discipline, however prime examples.

In years of working in the Tech Sector these misconceptions have been seen on multiple occasions. They are either based on lack of understanding or in some cases used as a springboard for kingdom building exercises, both to the detriment of the organization. One could be amazed how purveyors of this methodology cannot even recognize it at work. Irony. This gets me to the topic of my blog post for today, which is what DevOps is not.

DevOps is not development teams becoming the boss of everything. DevOps is not an Operations team becoming the boss of everything. DevOps is not isolated to any one team, any one discipline, or any solitary aspect in the production of work. Keyword there that someone knowledgeable in DevOps will catch the irony of.

DevOps, like Open Source, is something that, in idea and implementation, has been around for a very long time. Long before it was ever summed up into a buzzword of the day. Henry Ford understood it and implemented it.

Anyway, as irony rears its ugly head in the blog post yet again…..its time to head to work….lol